So, it was 2:15 am and was stuck outside my own house pounding on the door because my wife had locked the screen door and I was home early from a brutal three days of travel that felt like three weeks.

Ever had that trip?

Let me start from the beginning…

I had a big meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was one of those locations that were right between driving and flying. I chose to drive.

Not a few minutes into my drive I dealt with on-and-off rain that was just paralyzing to those on the road. Not the mist that annoys you of “should you have the windshield wipers scraping across your windshield” or pushing it just a little with the windshield.

This was black skies driving into the abyss.

And if the weather wasn’t enough, there were non-stop road repairs.

In Chicago, we have a running joke that we have two seasons: winter and construction.

We were definitely in construction season and now adding horrible weather.

And then there was the semis driving 66 mph to pass the other semi going 65mph and traffic back up for a mile.

My biggest life pet peeve is someone driving slow in the fast lane or the passing lane.

So, between the weather, construction, and traffic, my three-hour trip took well over five hours.

The meetings were good and I was to fly out of Cedar Rapids Regional Airport to Denver via Dallas.

I was required to fly an airline I don’t normally take seemingly out of convenience and was a good idea until my flight was delayed two hours. You guessed it: the weather.

From Bad to Worse…

Shockingly, I landed in enough time to make my flight although all my connection margin was shot. I was on the ground in Dallas at my gate waiting to get off my plane to make my connection waiting and waiting for almost 30 minutes as I was watching my plane board and take off literally at the gate RIGHT NEXT TO ME!

Who misses their flight and gets to watch their own flight board and take off?!?

Cruel man. Just cruel.

The good news is there was another plane I could take from Dallas with the only catch: two and a half hours from now.

Mind you, I have no status with this new airline and the customer service line was longer than bathrooms at a baseball game in the 7th inning.

I finally board and that flight took off an hour late.

Of course. Why not, right?

Needless to say, I was supposed to land in Denver at 9:45 pm and landed at a crisp my 2:00 am.

My drive to the hotel was 45 minutes which felt like an hour and 45 minutes. Interstates down to one lane due to paving.

I made it to my hotel that was sold out and didn’t care as long as I had a room until I was put in a handicap room right next to the elevator so by 6 am I was awoken by the elevator ding every five minutes and within a few minutes, I was awake and just chose to get up.

The next day I was moved locations only to enter a room that smelled worse than the designated smoking room in an airport that you can cut the air with a knife.

Really..?

Of course.

I changed rooms, recovered, and looked forward to getting back on track.

I made it to the Denver airport in enough time to leverage my TSA Pre-Check and get to my gate with time to get water, walk a bit, then board.

So I thought.

The North TSA-Security line was closed. Huh? 7 pm?

So, I walk to the South TSA-Security line to find out my TSA-Precheck was not on my boarding pass.

Huh? It’s been on there every flight for years. And years. And years.

Of course.

Now I’m in line with everyone else strapped for time and just wanting my carry-on so I can run to get to my gate.

As someone who’s not used to a mild strip at security, I was fighting the annoyance and inconvenience but missing my flight was the only thing on my mind.

But now what?

My bag gets flagged and I have to wait for someone, anyone to look through the same bag that always goes through security with zero issues.

And I waited. And waited.

I finally make it to my gate in just enough time to board. Whew, all good, right?

We board, get in my seat and watch dark skies take over what was suppose to be a picturesque sunset over the Rocky Mountains as I fly home to surprise my wife.

Then the lightning happens. Over and over. And the heavens open up. I was wondering if my plane was going to turn into an

Grounded. Everyone. And who knows how long. 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 minutes have gone by and I’m a captive audience.

We’re told all the time that IT Happens. Easy to say but what do you do on business travel when IT happens to you? And you know what I mean by IT happens…

What did I do when I was challenged with this in the very moment when “IT” is happening to me not just once but this whole week on the road?

Here are Four Responses to Dealing with IT When IT happens on the Road:

1st Response – Roll With IT

Before I acted like I was the only one affected. I would get worked up, find others to join in on my complaining and build my team against the wrongs done against us.

Do you know what changed?

Absolutely nothing.

Except I was miserable. And I had others join me and all riled up now.

The reality is nothing really improved. In fact, until I started to roll with it, I was even more affected.

Roll With It means “what happens happens” especially on business travel.

Here’s the reality we so quickly forget:

There’s just not too many things that should really surprise us on business travel especially if you’ve been doing this for any length of time.

When IT happens to you on the road, ROLL with it – what happens happens.

2nd Response – Let IT Go

I found that too often once I would ROLL with IT, the rolling would stop and I would get all worked up again.

Either the roll would lose momentum and just stop or it would be an abrupt stop hitting a pothole!

For example, I finally would “roll with the delayed flight” only to get re-worked up when the flight would be delayed again.

Like I never saw THAT coming, right?

Let IT Go means Aka: let IT keep rolling

Don’t pick IT up again

It’s not a one-time decision. You must keep letting it go.

An example would be forgiveness. Just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean you never have those feelings again. When, not if it comes back up again, you need to remind yourself to forgive again.

In this case, let IT go again.

Otherwise, it will own you all over again.

1st – Roll With It
2nd – Let IT Go

3rd Response – Learn From IT 

Excuse me, did you say to learn from IT? I didn’t ’t want IT in the first place?

Welcome to life.

We want the easy, the smooth – but that’s not life especially Road Life.

Things will happen even to the most prepared elite road warrior.

The key is finding what we can learn from the situation.

My father used to say to me:

“Son, you can learn from absolutely anything. Even how NOT to do something.”

With my trip, I was reminded how many things are just out of my control and just how quickly even after all these years of traveling, I can still get sucked back into the frustration, cynicism, and let it own and control me.

I can learn from what has just happened and the best way for me is to journal about it.

One of my daily seven questions is Lessons Learned and this is my time to reflect or Process the Thoughts as I call it under Energy Habit Five – Develop.

Learn from IT is looking BACK to get BETTER.

I take just a minute or two and really think through what I learned so I can accept what happened and move on to the last of the four responses to dealing with IT when IT happens on the road…

Learn From It Asks:
How did I respond to what happened?
Could I have avoided it?
Did I pick IT back up again?
What can or should I do differently?

Did you get frustrated with someone that didn’t deserve your entitled wrath?
Did you waste time when you were given extra time?

 

4th Resp0nse – Make the Best of IT

It really gets down to this 4th response. After you roll with it, let it go, I mean really let it go, then learn from it, you’re forced with a choice.

Will I make the best of IT and what IT just handed me?

Do I reflect on the smell of IT and all the negative or do I learn from IT and just make the best of IT?

Make the Best of IT is Looking FORWARD.

I was given a piece of advice by a mentor who told me when IT happens to me, ask this one question:

What does this now make possible?

Did you catch the power in that very simple six-word question?

What does this now make possible?

As a result of IT, the delayed flight, the canceled meeting, the short night, the (you fill in the blank), what does this now make possible that otherwise might never have happened?

Road Warriors, this is a knowledge bomb I’m dropping right now.

It takes maturity and wisdom to get to the point where you begin to learn and make the best of IT especially on the road and can ask such a powerful question:

What does this now make possible?

An Elite Road Warrior takes the IT that happens on the road, washes it off, doesn’t smell like IT, and is actually better for it while others are owned by it.

Choices.

Let’s Land This Plane

The road has IT’s challenges, especially when “IT” happens to you on the road. And many times IT’s not an isolated event. IT comes in waves and can hit hard.

So, how should you deal with IT when IT Happened on the road. When not IF.

Roll With IT – In the moment – what happens happens

Let IT Go – Still in the moment – Let IT keep rolling

Learn from IT –  Looking BACK to get BETTER

Make the Best of IT – Looking forward and asking: what does this now make possible?

If you can walk away this article and apply even one of the four responses, you’ll bet better for it. And if you can begin to ask the question: What does this now make possible?

You will regain control of your Road Life and begin to defeat IT when IT happens on the Road.

So, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life.

Stop getting by and get better.

You Got This!

People eat and drink for many reasons and emotions — hunger, anger, anxiety, overwhelm, loneliness, tiredness, sadness, happiness, social pressure, etc. 

Most people don’t focus on eating for energy. I would say seventy-five percent of what goes in my mouth is a calculated decision as far as timing and nutrient composition because I eat for energy. The other twenty-five percent would be because I’m at a party or friend’s house, it’s Saturday night movie night with my husband or, it’s a holiday.

 

Sometimes I don’t have a lot of choices, like at a small regional airport or a catered meal. Eating for energy means eating foods that are stimulating in the morning and calming in the evening. It means eating often enough that you don’t let your blood sugar get too low, but not so often that your body never knows the feeling of real hunger.

Caffeine – Good or Bad?

Caffeine is the most vilified and loved stimulant on the planet. The coffee haters like to showcase the addictive nature and almost become self-righteous about the fact that they don’t drink it. The coffee lovers want to showcase the health benefits. Both arguments are valid. If someone needs coffee in the morning, I think this is an issue where weaning off is recommended, until it becomes more of a pleasurable habit rather than a genuine need to function.

Personally, I love visiting coffee shops to work, dates with my friends, and to relax with my husband. It could be decaf, and I wouldn’t know the difference or care. It’s more of a routine or habit I enjoy than a genuine need for stimulants.

Contrary to how it’s typically used, coffee is best consumed when you are relaxed, healthy, and calm. 

Adding a stimulant onto an already stressed and fatigued person makes them more stressed and tired and leads to a vicious cycle. It makes the adrenal glands work harder, promotes more significant blood sugar swings, and can often disrupt sleep when the caffeine wears off.

What About Coffee?

Coffee has very significant health benefits for some people. It has been shown to reduce the incidence of Parkinson’s Disease, non-malignant melanoma, lower risk of early death, lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and has cognitive benefits that increase alertness. 

However, citing studies that show benefits or risks doesn’t necessarily indicate the whole picture. Coffee consumption is different for each of us, and like many things should be enjoyed in moderation. Drinking six cups a day is going to stress out your kidneys and adrenal glands regardless of how healthy you are.

There’s also a gene that determines if you metabolize caffeine fast or slow. Depending on that gene, coffee can make you more or less at risk of a heart attack. Thankfully, because I’ve had genetic testing, I know I’m in the beneficial category, at least for heart attack risk.

If you drink coffee in the morning, and then you feel like you need some later in the day or it makes you jittery and feel over-stimulated, you need to wean yourself off and then stick to one or two cups a day max. I call that feeling wired and tired or jacked and crashed. 

Using it as a little bit of a stimulant or brain booster early in the day works well for most people. Just be cautious about adding too much sweetener and making it a dessert drink.  Also, if you can train yourself to wait at least an hour after you wake up, you’ll develop less tolerance for it. 

Drinking coffee within that first hour competes with your body’s natural release of cortisol to help you wake up. Ride that cortisol train and then start your cup-a-joe. Just like a muffin is a cupcake without icing, a sweetened coffee drink is a hot milkshake.

It’s beneficial to give yourself a break every 6-8 weeks and go a week without caffeine to reap the benefits when you go back to it. If your body is used to it, you’ll need more and more. 

What If I Drink Too Much Coffee?

One way to wean yourself off or to give you the feeling of coffee is to use the coffee alternative Teeccino. It’s caffeine-free and made with dandelion root. Dandelion root may help to balance blood sugar, have a beneficial effect on the liver, and stimulate digestion. Teeccino also has carob, chicory, dates, and figs.

I mix this 50/50 with coffee in the morning to decrease my caffeine intake but still get that coffee feel. In the summer, I brew up a big pot of mocha Teeccino and make it into ice cubes and cut my iced coffee with it. I secretly do this with my husband’s daily joe, and he doesn’t know the difference. If he finds out now, I know you told him.

Consider your vice and if it’s helping or hurting. Think about it like the enjoyable drug that it is and time it properly, skip the sugar and occasionally wean yourself off to get the cognitive benefits later. And if you’re in the Raleigh area hit me up for a habanero coffee ?

About the Article Author…

Marcey Rader: Not. Like. The Others. She’s an award-winning, top-rated, speaker who packs presentations with actionable advice and real-world wisdom, decluttering your mind, body, and inbox, one habit at a time. Her speaking roster’s alive with engagements for Fortune 100 companies, startups, and everyone in between.

From North Dakota to Dubai, construction to biotech. Her coaching clients create boundaries, break barriers, and find the white space in their lives that they desire. She’s the author of two books on business travel productivity and health –www.beyondtravelbook.com. Find out more at www.marceyrader.com and www.workwellplaymore.com.

Her favorite coffee drink is the High-Five El Diablo in Asheville, NC

As a high performer, you’re always trying to make your life better.

AmIright??

Whether it means increasing sales, creating efficiencies, or being more present for your kiddos, pushing yourself to the next level is exciting.

However, it also comes with risk.

The risk of setting expectations too high and then not achieving them. Which makes you feel low and unmotivated and worst of all, inadequate.

You might berate yourself over why you can’t achieve what you set out to do.

Or feel like a failure when your intentions don’t go your way.

I hate that.

We put ourselves in situations that are not achievable even by the smartest and most driven person and then blame ourselves when things don’t go as planned.

Let’s put an end to this self-sabotaging experience of inadequacy, shall we?

There’s one simple tool I always use with my clients to set realistic expectations, take control of their time, and end each day feeling successful (instead of like a failure).

It’s Time Blocking.

Time blocking is just as it sounds – blocking out your time every day.

Time blocking is about assessing what you need to get done, how much time you have, and where you’ll fit it into your schedule.

Let me show you how time blocking can be the difference between feeling like a failure and feeling accomplished.

My to-do list has over 50 tasks on it. In my head, when I DON’T block my time, I think I’ll get to at half of them by the end of the day.

When I don’t get close to completing even half those tasks (or only do the easy ones so I feel busy), I feel like a failure.

That’s because no matter how much I actually accomplish I focus on what I DIDN’T get done.

On the other hand, here’s what my day looks like when I DO block my time:

• Drive to the airport and check in 8:00 – 9:30
• Call Rhonda to negotiate terms 9:45 – 10:15
• Create draft for Sims proposal 10:30 – 12:00 (on the flight)
• Attend meeting 1:30- 3:00
• Edit and finalize RFP 3:00 – 4:00
• Respond to emails 4:00 – 5:30
• Talk to kids 6:00 – 6:30
• Walk 7:30 – 8:30

Yup, 8 tasks. Just 8. Not a dozen, not two dozen. But eight.

With time blocked out on my schedule I can see exactly how much I can realistically fit in, including work, family, and health.

I don’t end up with a list of 20 other tasks I didn’t get done. Which means even if I get to six of the eight tasks on my time blocked schedule, I still feel like a winner.

A lot more inspiring and motivating than six out of twenty on my non-time blocked list.

When you rely on planning your day in your head, you underestimate how much time you have and overestimate how much you can get done.

Thoughts get jumbled and time frames get confused. You have got to get it down on your calendar (or paper) where you can see it throughout the day.

Important Tip: Do not underestimate the value of taking five minutes every night to go through the exercise of blocking your time on your calendar for the next day. Time blocking forces you to take a look at your meetings and appointments and scheduling what is truly most important around them.

It forces you to prioritize BEFORE you begin your day, which arms you to be proactive vs. reactive throughout the day.

It allows you to make educated and rational decisions about what future commitments you should say yes to and what requests you should say no to.

For example, if a friend or colleague asks to “pick your brain,” or “grab a bite,” before immediately responding “Yes!” you take a glance at your day’s schedule and let them know that right now isn’t a great time, but after 2 pm you are wide open.

If you regularly find yourself feeling like you’re not achieving what you set out to do, please embrace this simple yet powerful strategy.

Time blocking truly is the magic pill for setting realistic expectations and improving your results. I dare you to try it!

Here’s to getting more of the right things done.

——————————————————–
Mridu Parikh is a writer and speaker on the Elite Road Warrior Team. She helps ambitious professionals feel in control of their time, energy, and habits, even when they’re overwhelmed by demands and distractions. As a productivity coach, speaker, and best-selling author she will teach you how to focus, overcome procrastination, and squash anxiety.

ERW endorses her book, Accomplish It.

Listen to an interview with Mridu on the Elite Road Warrior Podcast Episode 022.

Get Mridu’s FREE resource, 21 Killer Hacks To Stop Feeling Overwhelmed, on her website, Life Is Organized.

Did you know the average business traveler spends between 48-74 nights away from home?  

For someone that doesn’t travel or travels very little, they seemed surprised, even shocked by this number.

Those that travel in this range, completely agree. And those of us who travel that amount by Memorial Day, know what it’s like to try and live in a home away from home.

 

Most do it very poorly and just survive. Or as I often say, “getting by, not getting better”. But does it have to be that way? Just getting by on the road?

I remember before I started traveling for a living, how much I looked forward to staying in a hotel. The criteria and expectations were so different back in those simple, naive days.

When I travel with my family and the kids, oftentimes it’s as simple as throw the stuff down, grab the swimsuits, and head to the pool.

But now it’s a whole different ball game with business travel especially traveling the amount I’ve done year after year now.

Here’s the reality:

A hotel room can make or break a trip especially that first night.  My normal routine before I became focused, okay obsessed with maximizing my energy on the road, was one of the following after I opened my hotel room door:

1. Chuck my carry-on wherever to deal with whenever, turn on the tv, and crash by relaxing on the bed
2. Kind of unpack and leave the room immediately for bigger and better things (never found out what exactly was bigger and better other than my gut and my next big meal or drink)

But I realized these two approaches always back-fired on me. I eventually came back to my “home away from home” and being negligent to set up this temporary home environment always had negative consequences:

• My room was a blast furnace
• My clothes were a wrinkled mess
• I couldn’t find anything in my carry on because it was late and dark and I was impatient and 
• I felt organized and frustrated

It came down to a lack of preparation on my part to set up my home away from home to work best for me. After all, I was on the road to perform at a high level (energy habit four) and produce results.

I was viewing my hotel room as a place to CRASH not a place of ENERGY.

And the irony is it would only take a simple plan and a few minutes of my time to solve this disorganization and frustration.

I wanted and needed my hotel room to create energy not consume energy for me and a few seemingly simple tweaks could actually give me a quick boost of energy.

This is what I came up with and I now live by the acronym HOME.

Ironically enough, since it’s one night or a week, the reality is it’s my home while I’m away from “real home.” Before we get into “the details” on how to make the most of your hotel room we have to discuss how do I make sure this is going to happen.

The Trigger.

I had to have a trigger so I can change my old habits of chucking my carry-on wherever and crashing on the bed.

The trigger is the key opens my door. Once that happens, I roll in my carry-on, grab the stand, and open up my suitcase.

Why?

Because I need this motion as an immediate trigger to the reality this is my new home.

For now.

The old way was just walk in, chuck the carry on and just move on not move in.

This trigger was my catalyst for this new change of behavior. So, how do you take immediate control of your home away from home?

Now, I don’t know the quality of your hotel, if you’re staying one night or one week. But this information applies no matter your situation.

And it all starts with The Trigger I referenced earlier.

Once my key opens my hotel room after check-in, I go through a four-step process found in an acronym: HOME

How to Immediately Take Control of Your Home Away From Home on Business Travel

1. Home

H – Hang up and unpack 

Okay, my hotel room is open and I have a choice what to do next.

The easy thing is to chuck the carry-on in the corner, grab the remote, and jump on the bed.

Or maybe the only thing you get out is your laptop to start cranking out some work.

I want to challenge you to begin the HOME away from HOME by starting with the “H” – hang up and unpack.

The very 1st thing I do is find the luggage holder, find the ideal spot in the room and immediately hang up my dress clothes. I always have nice clothes that need to be hung up so here’s my chance. I then unpack my entire carry-on. Huh?

Why? It’s simple and psychological: I don’t want to feel like I’m living out of a suitcase. And the reality is it only takes a couple of minutes. I’ve done it so many times, I can knock it out quickly.

I have my non-hanging clothes in packing cubes so they’re easy to pull out of my carry-on, open up a drawer, and either unload the contents or if the drawer is larger enough, I simply set the packing cube in the drawer wide open for easy access.

Lastly, I take my toiletry bag into the bathroom and unpack them. All of them. I HATE scrounging through that small bag what seems like hours to find “that one thing” I need. I take a washcloth or small towel and set everything out. (I’m a little OCD in this way so you don’t have to take it as far as I do – I was going to include a picture but didn’t want to freak you out).

I can literally do this H Step in under 2 minutes.

2. hOme

O – Optimize the space

After H of “Hang Up and Unpack”, next, I begin to tailor the room to fit me. It is MY room until I leave.

Now, I’m not moving walls or taking down pictures but I am making tweaks that make me feel more comfortable.

The 1st thing I do is remove the clutter. I don’t need or even want all the magazines, advertisements, etc. laying all around the room. In one swoop, I grab anything out and put it in a drawer. 

The next thing I do is adjust the furniture. I know, crazy, right? I’m not moving the bed or redecorating but often I’m making two potential moves:

The Desk – if I’m going to be spending any amount of time in a workspace, I want to tweak it to fit me and this usually means changing the location to face a window if I can move it. I also see if there’s a way I can adjust the height to make it more of a stand-up desk. A personal thing with me.

The Chair – I’m a voracious reader (Energy Habit Four – Develop) so if I can put the chair in a more optimal location, again, by a window, all the better. I start my morning reading so I like to have the location all set and ready for me. 

Optimizing the space is a “feel thing”. If it’s a value to you, you know that about you and just need to act on it. You’ll be surprised what this can do for you.

If you’re not sure, just try it. I had never thought of it until a fellow business traveler on a plane told me about this idea. Now, it’s part of my routine.

How can you maximize the room layout to create energy for you?

This O Step takes me only 2 or 3 minutes.

So, H is Hang up and Unpack / O is Optimize Your Space and now…

3. hoMe

M – Manage the room temperature and scent 

Ah, the temperature. It’s never right. I’ve lost track how many times I walked into the hotel room and began to sweat. Not cool. Literally. I sweat enough in air conditioning, I don’t need any help in a warm room!

My HOME routine means I MUST change the temperature of the room to what is comfortable to me. Not my wife or my kids (sold separately on business travel) so it’s what I like and prefer. 

Often, I set it for my ideal sleeping temperature which is usually around 66 degrees. I know, one cool cat.

Another tweak I do with the room temperature has more to do with the room scent.

Here’s my Scent Hack: I bring cotton balls and put a few drops of essential oils to change the scent of the room. This is great when you come back into the room and have a comforting scent that is calming and familiar.

Did you catch that? Calming and most importantly, familiar. I love the scent of eucalyptus so this gets dripped on to the cotton ball and then put into the vent in the wall. Wha la. At night I’ll often change the essential oil to lavender to help me sleep (which I also put some on my body). Don’t knock it until you try it. 

Think about your ideal room temperature and scent. Chances are you’re put little to no thought into this question especially when you enter the room and part of your routine.  

This takes me a “cool and stinkin'” 1 minute.

H – hang up and unpack / O – optimize the space / M – manage the temperature/scent

4. homE

E – Exercise

Are you serious Clark? (name the movie: Christmas Vacation)

After I complete the 1st three parts of the H.O.M.E. acronym, it’s time to move the body especially on a travel day and quite possibly a busy day depending on what time I make it to the hotel.

Depending on how much time I have, this will determine whether I’m going to do something in my room or head down to the hotel fitness center or local gym.

And I always have a plan.

If I have a short amount of time, I can drop to the floor and do a few minutes of an ab workout or pushups or burpees that include pushups and work my abs.

If I’ve had little activity, I may do just 10 minutes of a High-Intensity Interval Workout (HIIT). You’d be surprised how much you can get your heart rate up and how much better you’ll feel in just 10 minutes.

Many times I want to find the hotel fitness center and just do some dumbbell workout. If I have more time, I may want to visit a local gym to workout and leverage the sauna or steam room or plunge pool.

But you need to have a plan.

Once I open that hotel room door, I need to know how much time I have, what I feel like doing, and what I’m going to do.

Don’t believe the lie that you don’t have enough time for a hit of exercise. If you’ve read my book, I say often:

Something, anything is better than nothing.

This exercise approach of something, anything is better than nothing, is my BIGGEST boost of energy for wherever my evening will lead me.

This takes me anywhere between 5-30 minutes. And worth literally every minute.

My Suggestion 

Start with one of the four above that would make the biggest impact on your energy if you were to implement it. 

For example, the 1st one for me was simply changing the room temperature. Sounds silly but I HATED coming back to a warm room after a long day and it felt like forever for it to cool down especially if I had to be out late that day.

Next for me was hanging up my clothes and fully unpacking. It was more of a mental thing at first but led to not consuming needless energy looking for things and feeling like a visitor in my own room. 

What I enjoy the most through my stay is Optimizing the Space. Changing the room to fit my flow has made working (Perform Energy Habit) and reading/thinking (Develop Energy Habit) so much more enjoyable to me. 

Look for something that will be a simple and impactful change and you should see immediate feedback on its effectiveness. Remember, the goal is taking ownership of your hotel room to create not consume your energy. 

Let’s Land This Plane

The H.O.M.E. Method is easy to remember and easy to use chronological process but can be done in any order. It starts with the Trigger – once your room key opens the door, the H.O.M.E. acronym is activated and it’s Go Time.

H – Hang up and unpack

O – Optimize the space

M – Manage the room temperature and scent

E – Exercise – something, anything is better than nothing

It only requires a short amount of time but can have quick and tangible results. 

So, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything just not nothing to master the business travel life. Leverage that road to becoming an elite road warrior today. 

YOU GOT THIS!

If you’re interested in the audio version of this post, check out the Elite Road Warrior Podcast episode 015. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and on this site under Podcasts.